Public Administration Graduate
Courses & Syllabi (Spring 2013)

PAD 500 Introduction to Foundations of Public Administration (4)
This course focuses on tensions and trade-offs between important values in public administration and the institutional foundations of the public service in political, bureaucratic, and legal settings. Major topics include dimensions of the public sector, characteristics of institutional settings, history of the field, environmental context, and functions, roles, behaviors, and structures.

PAD 501 Public and Nonprofit Financial Management (4)
This course focuses on teaching students how to use financial information to make decisions in public and not-for-profit organizations. The first half of the course focuses on developing, implementing and controlling agency financial plans. The course covers an introduction to financial management, the development of operating budgets, tools for short-term decision-making, capital-budgeting decisions, and the analysis of long-term financial options. The second half of the course focuses on summarizing, reporting on and analyzing an organization's financial position, and the results of its operations.PAD 503 (PUB 503) Principles of Public Economics (4)How do markets allocate resources in an economy? How do firms operate in both the sort run and the long run? What effect do taxes have on markets? What are the key rationales for governments to intervene in the economy? This class surveys microeconomic theory, with particular emphasis on principles most relevant for government and applications to policy or management. Prerequisites: PAD 501 and familiarity with algebra.

PAD 504 (PUB 504) Data, Models, and Decisions I (4)
Introduction to computer-based tools for planning, policy analysis, and decision making. Topics include administrative and policy models in spreadsheets, dynamic models in difference equations and spreadsheets, making decisions with multiple criteria, resource allocation, probability and decision trees, data bases and information management, and telecommunications in local networks and the Internet. Prerequisites: Familiarity
with word processing on either IBM or Macintosh platforms.

PAD 505 (POS 505) Data, Models, and Decisions II (4)
Basic introduction to statistical methods and tests. Specific course topics include measurement, probability, distribution, tables and graphs, estimation and hypothesis testing, and linear models. Emphasis is placed on interpreting and presenting statistical outputs, including reports generated by computer programs. Prerequisite: Graduate standing.PAD 506 Foundations of Public Management (4)
An introduction to the theory and practice of public management. Topics include individual, group level, and organizational issues such as creating productive work environments, working within human resource systems, developing a learning organization, facilitating innovation, and managing across organizational boundaries. Cases and exercises will focus on practical applications of concepts covered. Prerequisite: Institutional Foundations of Public Administration.

PAD 508 Professional Applications II (2)
This Module normally is taken during the later half of a student's core curriculum. It continues the focus on skill development introduced in Professional Applications I and synthesizes material presented throughout the core. Using simulations and other exercises, it requires students to address a significant, multifaceted managerial or policy problem. Prerequisite: PAD 507 Professional Applications I.

PAD 513 Topics in Information Resource Management (1-4)
Workshops provide students with an intensive focus on information resource systems, issues, practices and polices at the state and local levels of government. The emphasis will be on the most current research and practices in this rapidly changing environment. Individual workshop topics could include making information technology choices, managing records, information sharing, issues of intellectual property rights, information security, developing and managing web sites, and intergovernmental relationships in IT management.

PAD 517 (POS 517) Empirical Data Analysis (4)
Introduction to a variety of data-analysis techniques ranging in complexity from simple table construction and interpretation to causal analysis. Within this range are coding, scale and index construction, multidimensional scaling, levels of measurement, measures of association, correlation and regression, panel and cohort analysis, and Markov chains. Introduction to computer technology and functional software. Basic competence in statistics necessary. Prerequisite: One course in statistics or consent of instructor.

PAD 553 Topics in Homeland Security and Terrorism (4)This course examines an array of topics related to homeland security, terrorism, responses to terrorism, and the role of terrorism in public policy problems. Depending on the semester, the course will focus on a subset of issues in this field and may include both substantive and methodological topics relevant to the study of homeland security and terrorism.PAD 554 (POS 554) Political Violence, Insurgency and Terrorism (4)
This course examines the relationships among, and differences between the following activities in the international political system: political violence, insurgency, and terrorism. The course will include a consideration of the causes of these activities, their effects on national and international politics, and an evaluation of governmental responses to them.PAD 557 (PUB 557) Intelligence Analysis for Homeland Security (4)
This course provides instruction in conducting intelligence analysis, with emphasis on homeland security issues at the State and local levels. After an overview of the history and structure of the US foreign intelligence community, we review the fundamentals of intelligence analysis tradecraft as practiced within the CIA and other federal intelligence agencies. Extensive time is devoted to learning and using structured analytic techniques through student-led analytic exercises on terrorism and major crimes.

PAD 558 (PUB 558) Intelligence & US National Security Policymaking (4)
This seminar examines the role of intelligence in the formulation and implementation of US foreign policy. Through critical analysis and case studies, students will develop techniques to increase intelligence's contribution to policy deliberations while ensuring that it does not prescribe policy. The course will assess the most appropriate role for the CIA and the Intelligence Community in supporting this executive branch process. After an overview of the CIA, its functions, structure, and capabilities. We review the US foreign policy process, key players, and institutional bias. The bulk of the course is devoted to a series of mock intelligence and policy meetings on the Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq crises to critically analyze the CIA's proper role in supporting the policy process.

PAD 583 (POS 583) Global Governance (4)The organization of world politics in the context of globalization. Overview of international organizations such as the United Nations and regional organizations such as the European Union. Examination of the historical and current international legal frameworks. Analysis of international cooperation beyond the confines of formal organizational structures with particular emphasis on international regimes, institutions and norms that govern state practices in particular issue areas – from trade and weapons proliferations to the environment and refugees. Also examines transnational relations of non-state actors such as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and multinational corporations as well as transgovernmental relations of sub-national governments and government agencies that shape policymaking at a global level.

PAD 585 (POS 585) Information Technology and Homeland Security (4)
This graduate course primarily examines the political, legal and policy aspects of the use of information technologies by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) but also considers non-technological dimensions of information collection, use and management as well as the use of technologies other than computing in the homeland security domain. Topics include: the DHS enterprise architecture; data-mining, information sharing and data-integration; risk assessment and risk management; project management, system development and acquisitions; information technologies used for screening people, goods and conveyances at borders; managing immigration, investigations and forensics; cyber-terrorism, critical infrastructure protection, data security, privacy and civil liberties; international standard setting and information sharing; robotics and potential applications of nanotechnology. The course is primarily focused on information technology use by the US federal government but will also examine state and local governments and other countries as well as international issues such as information sharing and international technical standards.

PAD 604 (POS 604, WSS 604) Inequality and Public Policy (4)This course addresses the formulation and implementation of public policies that seek to end inequalities based on gender, race, class, sexual identity and/or other categories of marginalization. Theoretical and case study readings focus on the challenges, paradoxes and successes of a variety of social change initiatives. Prerequisite: Wss 525 (Feminist Thought and Public Policy) recommended.PAD 607 Non-Profit Governance (4)This course examines the governance environment where boards and the leadership volunteers that serve on them operate, including what boards and volunteers do and how they do it to maximize nonprofit organization effectiveness. The aspect of the course that covers the "what" is the formal roles and responsibilities of boards whereas the "how" refers to the non-formal approach taken to carry out their roles vis a vis the organization's management. The course utilizes a series of written reflections and Academic Service Learning (ASL) to explore the concept of board effectiveness in a real world context (e.g. students are matched to local boards to assess governance effectiveness). ASL, which is an intellectual process (academic) and product (service) of learning, is an ideal pedagogy for the theme of the course – exploring ways nonprofit boards and the volunteers that sit on them add positive value to nonprofit organizations.

PAD 611 Decision Making in Government and Administration (4)
Rational decision theory and decision-making practice as illustrated by case materials. Topics covered may include: the economic concept of utility and maximization; the analytic problems of modeling and uncertainty; the psychological considerations of individual preferences and risk-taking behavior; the organizational and political context of decisions and its effect on agency choice; and current trends in public decision-making structures.

PAD 612 Nonprofits and Public Policy (4)
This course examines the intersection of nonprofit organizations and public policy. Issues include: government-nonprofit policy relationships; tax policy related to tax exemption, market-based commercial activities, and charitable contributions; and current policy debates such as the role of nonprofits in policy advocacy and the role of faith based organizations in social service provision.

PAD 618 Public Personnel Administration (4)An overview of the legal and political context of public personnel management and key activities. Students will use theory to inform the practice of key personnel functions, including such topics as merit staffing, classification and compensation, performance appraisal, managing diversity, and labor-management relations. Both federal and New York State personnel systems are covered. Prerequisites: PAD 500 and PAD 506, or permission of instructor.

PAD 642 Public Budgeting (4)
This course will involve a detailed examination of the processes and analytical techniques involved in developing and managing public budgets. Extensive attention will be put on budget processes and politics, the analysis of public revenue sources, and the techniques of budget analysis. The course will include considerable analysis of public budgets as well as a detailed examination of current issues, controversies and research in public budgeting. Prerequisite: PAD 501 or equivalent or PAD 504 or equivalent.

PAD 650 (PUB 650) Building a Case for IT Investments in the Public Sector (4)
This course presents a formal methodology for making IT investment decisions including problem definition, stakeholder analysis, process analysis, best and current practices, technology awareness, and case building. Students will engage in a project with a university or government customer to build a business case for a new IT investment. Prerequisites: PAD 500 and PAD 506, or permission of instructor.

PAD 654 Your Money or Your Life: Economics of Health Policy (4)Why is health care so expensive? Why do health care markets tend to be inefficient and unjust? What are major psychological biases in health care behavior? What incentives does the American health care system create for the different actors in the system? How can we evaluate health care outcomes? This course examines major topics in the economics of health care policy, including selection, moral hazard, bargaining power, adoption of new technologies, valuing health, consumer behavior, provider behavior, and psychological health economies. Prerequisites: PAD 503 and 505, or equivalent exposure to microeconomics and statistics.

PAD 659 Managing Public Service Organization Finances (4)This course focuses on the tools and techniques of managing government and non-profit budgets and financial decision-making within public service organizations. Topics include payroll projection and management, purchasing and procurement, contracting for services, budget analysis and planning, budget management and reporting, fund and revenue management, and the importance of internal controls and financial control systems. Prerequisite: PAD 501.

PAD 703 Economic and Financial Theory (4)
Examines the important theories in economics and finance relevant to public administration and basic tools of economics and finance needed to understand important public sector issues. Use of economic theory to analyze issues such as market failure, tax policy, equity and efficiency, and provision of public goods. Use of financial theory to understand the basics of financial management in the public sector such as cash and debt management and capital budgeting. Prerequisite: Admission to Ph.D. program.

PAD 704 Research Methods I (4)
Introduction to research design, including quantitative and qualitative approaches. Topics include conceptualization and design of research projects. Prerequisite: PAD 505 or equivalent.